The embossing of paper products to make those products more absorbent, softer and bulkier, over unembossed products, is well known in the art. Embossing technology has included pin-to-pin embossing where protrusions on the respective embossing rolls are matched such that the tops of the protrusion contact each other through the paper product, thereby compressing the fibrous structure of the product. The technology has also included male-female embossing, or nested embossing, where protrusions of one or both rolls are aligned with either a non-protrusion area or a female recession in the other roll. U.S. Pat. No. 4,921,034, issued to Burgess et al. on May 1, 1990 provides additional background on embossing technologies.
Deep nested embossing of multiply tissue products is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,686,168 issued to Laurent et al. on Nov. 11, 1997; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,294,475 issued to McNeil on Mar. 15, 1994. While these technologies have been useful in improving the embossing efficiency and glue bonding of these multiply tissues, manufacturers have observed that when producing certain deep nested embossed patterns the resulting tissue paper is less soft and less absorbent than expected. As expected, tissue products having these less than desirable softness and absorbency detract significantly from the acceptance of the product despite the improved aesthetic impression of the deep nested embossing.
It has been found that certain selected embossing patterns allow for deep nested embossing while improving tissue softness and absorbency.